Biography

Sellers earned his B.A. from Morehouse College in 2005. He then attended the University of South Carolina School of Law. Sellers is the Southeastern Regional Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Sellers was a Congressional Intern with Congressman Jim Clyburn in 2003. He then served as a Mayoral Intern with Mayor Shirley Franklin in 2004.

Sellers has been highlighted by Time Magazine as one of the 40 leaders under 40 who are "rising stars of American politics.[3] In June 2011, Governing Magazine named Sellers one of 12 "Democratic Legislators to Watch." Each of the legislators was selected on the basis of qualities such as leadership, ambition, and political potential.[4]

Sellers is the son of Civil Rights leader Cleveland Sellers, the current president of Voorhees College in Denmark, S.C.

Committee assignments

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Sellers served on the following committees:

2009-2010

Issues

Merit-based pay

In April 2011, Sellers offered his thoughts on teacher performance-based pay to a Dutch Fork High class. Sellers said he's afraid that, under new S.C. Department of Education Superintendent Mick Zais, South Carolina teachers won't have input in the discussion.[5]

Race background

Resignation of Glenn McConnell

Former South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Glenn McConnell was hired by the College of Charleston as president and left office in June 2014.[7] The current Senate President Pro Tempore, Republican state Sen. John Courson, would normally be next in line but he expressed a desire to stay in the Senate. As such, a Democratic state senator, John McGill, was temporarily elected president pro tempore so that he could become interim lieutenant governor.

If McGill had decided that he wanted to remain lieutenant governor after January 2014, he would have needed to run as an independent candidate since the filing deadlines and primaries for partisan passed prior to his elevation. The filing deadline for a prospective independent candidate was July 15 and McGill had given no indication that he intended to run for lieutenant governor by that deadline.

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Sellers is available dating back to 2006. Based on available campaign finance records, Sellers raised a total of $92,768 during that time period. This information was last updated on July 10, 2013.[12]

Scorecards

Legislative scorecards are used to evaluate elected public officials based on voting record. Some scorecards are created by political advocacy groups with a focus on specific issues, while others are developed by newspapers and are broad in scope. Scorecards are meant to be used as a tool for voters to have a quick picture of whether their views align with a particular legislator's record.

Because scorecards can be specific to particular issues or general to a state’s legislative term, for example, each report should be considered on its own merits. Each entity that publishes these reports uses different methodologies and definitions for the terms used.

An overview for scorecards in all 50 states can be found on this page. To contribute to the list of South Carolina scorecards, email suggestions to scorecards@ballotpedia.org.

Please see our writing guidelines if you would like to add results from an individual scorecard to this legislator's profile.

2013-2014

The South Carolina State Legislature was in its 120th legislative session from January 8, 2013, to June 6, 2014. In 2014, a statewide session was held from June 17 to June 19 "for the consideration of certain specified matters."[13]

Legislators are scored on business issues, including: infrastructure funding, the Department of Employment and Workforce Integrity bill, expanding 4-year-old kindergarten and funding for the Manufacturing Skills Standard Council.

Legislators are scored on environment and conservation of land efforts.

2011-2012

The South Carolina State Legislature was in its 119th legislative session from January 11, 2011, to June 7, 2012.
On June 2, 2011, Governor Nikki Haley attempted to call the Legislature into an "emergency" special session to begin on June 7 to create the new South Carolina Department of Administration. A lawsuit was filed by Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, in which he contended that Haley's call for a special session was unconstitutional, and that it violated the state Constitution's requirement of separation of powers among the governor, legislature and courts.[14] On June 6, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled 3-2 against Governor Haley, stating that her order violated the Legislature's ability to set its calendar and agenda.[15]
The legislature met in a special redistricting session from June 14 - July 1.[16] The legislature re-convened July 26.[17]

The Palmetto Liberty PAC Scorecard

The Palmetto Liberty Political Action Committee, a conservative pro-limited government think tank in South Carolina, releases its Scorecard for South Carolina Representatives and Senators once a year. The Scorecard gives each a legislator a score based on how they voted in the two-year legislative term prior to the election on specific issues which the Palametto Liberty PAC thought were anti-limited government. "Most of the votes shown on the score card are votes that we lost. Now we can identify the Legislators that caused us to lose these votes. These Legislators are the ones who need to be replaced if we are to achieve the vision of having the most free state in the nation."[18]